Embattled Winnebago County Board chairman mulls lawsuit

Isaac Guerrero Staff writer @isaac_rrs

Friday

Apr 19, 2019 at 7:36 PMApr 19, 2019 at 8:58 PM

Taxpayers underwrite legal fees amid county budget crunch

ROCKFORD — Embattled Winnebago County Board Chairman Frank Haney will ask State's Attorney Marilyn Hite Ross next week to sue the County Board over an ordinance it approved last month that diminished his executive power.

A fractured relationship between Haney and a majority of the 20-member board has, in recent weeks, erupted into a supercharged legal controversy that has now ensnared the county's top prosecutor. Haney claims that Hite Ross has a conflict of interest and cannot represent both him and the board while they are at odds.

Haney asked a circuit court judge last month to appoint his personal lawyer, Kenneth Florey, as a special state's attorney in an effort to resolve the controversy. On Friday, Judge Donna Honzel denied Haney's request but did allow him to file a new court petition for the same purpose. Additionally, the judge told Haney, he must first exhaust the possibility that Hite Ross would agree to a lawsuit against the County Board on his behalf before the court would consider whether to appoint a special state's attorney to do so.

Honzel's decision sets into motion a series of legal steps that could result in Haney suing the County Board in coming weeks. Taxpayers would pay the legal fees of lawyers on both sides of such a lawsuit — just as taxpayers are paying lawyers on both sides of the lawsuit that Sheriff Gary Caruana filed against the County Board last month. For now, Florey is representing Haney for free. However, taxpayers would be charged for his legal services should he be appointed Haney's special state's attorney.

Haney didn't get what he asked for in court Friday, but he'll be asking again in a matter of weeks. The practical result of what happened Friday is simple: the cloud of political dysfunction that hangs over Winnebago County government may not pass for weeks, if it passes at all.

The county is operating on a deficit budget this fiscal year, as expenses outweigh revenue by more than $2 million. The budget for the county-owned River Bluff Nursing Home is also dripping with red ink. And after putting off major capital spending for years, board members are weighing whether to borrow perhaps $30 million to fix county roads, buy new voting machines for the clerk's office, upgrade computer hardware and software, make building repairs and more.

Meanwhile, political battles among several of the county's top elected officials are being resolved in courtrooms, and taxpayers are on the hook for the legal bills. In January, the board approved payment of $27,700 for Caruana's court-appointed special state's attorney. And that was a month before the Lisle-based law firm sued the board, Haney, County Administrator Carla Paschal and Treasurer Sue Goral on the sheriff's behalf.

At the heart of the Caruana's lawsuit is his claim that the board hasn't given his department enough money to keep Winnebago County safe.

Despite all of the chaos, any differences between Haney and the County Board could be settled outside of a courtroom, said David Boomer, the board's majority leader. But that's a tall order, Boomer said, because Haney won't listen to board members.

“There's just no middle ground with Frank,” Boomer said.

But instead of making peace with the board, Haney now faces the paradoxical step of asking Hite Ross to sue the board on his behalf. Hite Ross has shunned Florey's attempts to communicate with her because she maintains that, as Winnebago County's state's attorney, she is the only proper legal counsel for the chairman in his official capacity.

Altering the chairman's administrative duties and responsibilities is the County Board's prerogative, Boomer said.

“The chairman's position was created by ordinance, it can be changed by ordinance and it can be abolished by ordinance,” said Boomer, R-4. “So I don't understand how we violated his rights.”

Haney, who appeared in Honzel's courtroom Friday but did not speak during the proceeding, said he'll ask Hite Ross early next week to sue the board on his behalf.

Haney's claim is that the board violated his rights and subverted the will of voters by approving an ordinance on March 28 that stripped him of his budgetary and management authority over county government.

Hite Ross will have two options if and when Haney asks her to sue the board, Florey said. She could agree that Haney has standing to sue the board, and then recuse herself from doing so on his behalf because she is also the board's general counsel. Under that scenario, Hite Rose might even support Haney's request to have Florey appointed as his special state's attorney.

Hite Ross' other option, Florey said, is to decline Haney's request to sue the board.

“In that case, we'd go to court ourselves and file the petition without the state's attorney's support,” Florey said.

Haney declined to discuss the legal scenarios that may play out for him. Among the tasks that occupy his attention for now: writing a speech.

“I am looking forward to the State of the County address to the Rockford Chamber of Commerce next Thursday,” Haney said. “There are a lot of opportunities and policy issues to talk about with the community.”

Isaac Guerrero: 815-987-1361; iguerrero@rrstar.com; @isaac_rrs

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